the very first book you've ever read

[cacian]

on your own?

[Delta40]

Dick & Dora

[Calidore]

Can't remember that far back, but it was probably something by Richard Scarry.

[Chris 73]

I think it was White Fang by Jack London. I was seven.

[cacian]

I think it was White Fang by Jack London. I was seven.

what did you make of it?

[Alexander III]

If by own your own you mean the first book you read without it being read to you, my answer would be the third or fourth harry potter, I don't quite remember which.

If by On your Own you mean the first book one has read by choice, not because it was imposed upon one by school or family, then it would be A collection of Keat's poems when I was 17.

[cacian]

Dick & Dora

Dick and Dora Nip and Fluff.
Apparently they are collectable now.

[RicMisc]

Probably the first Harry Potter; or Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (Crusade in Jeans) by Thea Beckman.

[Aylinn]

I was 5 or 6 years old, so I only vaguely remember that it might have been a book about Christmas for children.

[halfmoon25]

The Boxcar Children series...do those count? lol

[Babyguile]

Goosebumps.

[halfmoon25]

Goosebumps.

especially the ones where you make decisions on where the story goes.

[Babyguile]

especially the ones where you make decisions on where the story goes.

I liked them too but I always wanted more options and more choices at various points throughout the book, so ultimately I found them dissapointing and limited. I remember the plots to some of those books so vividly, but I'm still quite young. I just can't remember which particular Gossebumps titles I read and there's just so many of them!

[halfmoon25]

There are a ton of them...but there is one that vividly sticks out in my mind.

http://images.wikia.com/goosebumps/images/b/bf/The_horror_at_camp_jellyjam.jpg

For some reason I remember this one...maybe because I am scarred for life :) When I was a child I was deathly afraid to go to any summer camp because of this book. Actually, it would be kind of fun to read it now to see how ridiculous it was!

[JuniperWoolf]

Goosebumps.

Ditto. This one specifically:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljbw7lXuHd1qgbutqo1_400.jpg

[PoeticPassions]

YES! Goosebumps! I read basically all of them... ah, good memories. Those were some of the first books I read in English.

Here is one memorable one for me:
http://movienewscentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Goosebumps.jpg

But since I started reading at age 5 or 6, I do not remember which was the very first book I read... (Maybe my mom knows)

One of the first books to really have an impact on me was Tuck Everlasting... and The Giver. 5th grade was a prolific year of reading for me... I also read the Wrinkle in Time series then...

[Silas Thorne]

I think one of the first books I read alone would be 'Billy Balloon' or 'The Thing From Somewhere', or the Dr Seuss book 'Great Day For Up'.

[aliengirl]

The first book I remember reading on my own was a fat volume of Russian folktales
when I was six. I still had that book but it no longer looks so fat.

[Sophia21]

The first book that I read in English was Rip Van Winkle. Although I red it with my aunt's help but it was great fun. Sweet memories !!!!!!! :)

[cacian]

The first book that I read in English was Rip Van Winkle. Although I red it with my aunt's help but it was great fun. Sweet memories !!!!!!! :)

Hi Sophia do you say in English?

[RetsixArp]

on your own?I must be very old here, because I remember hauling some wide but thin Golden Book of Dinosaurs to 1st grade "show-&-tell." Lotsa big illustrations, but I guess I read it, because I recall learning the names of the geologic periods & epochs: Devonian, Carboniferous. How much of it was fiction I don't know.

There was also the little Golden Book, How to Tell Time, with its protagonist, Tommy O'Toole a.k.a. Tommy Too-Late. Later, grade school got me a volume of Thinking Machine tales by Jacques Futrelle. I had no clue about when they were written, 'til years later when I found out that Futrelle perished on the Titanic.

[Snowqueen]

As far as I can remember the first book I read was an Urdu translation of King Solomon’s Mines written by H. Rider Haggard.

[Chris 73]

what did you make of it?

Loved White Fang! Still have the same copy 33 years later. Really ought to do a re-read.
Much more sophisticated than the Peter and Jane books I'd been wrestling with at the time.

[Jackson Richardson]

The Rockingdown Mystery by Enid Blyton. I'd just learnt to read, I saw this in Mr Tuckett's the Newsagent, bought it and read it through.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/author/illustrations/520high+1344324.jpg

Fortunately it was the first of a series, that I then went on to read systematically.

[cacian]

The first book I remember reading on my own was a fat volume of Russian folktales
when I was six. I still had that book but it no longer looks so fat.

Do you have a folktale to share?
I know nothing of russian culture.


The Rockingdown Mystery by Enid Blyton. I'd just learnt to read, I saw this in Mr Tuckett's the Newsagent, bought it and read it through.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/author/illustrations/520high+1344324.jpg

Fortunately it was the first of a series, that I then went on to read systematically.

Hi ruggerlad.
What did you make of it?
I am liking the colours a sign of their times especially the blond hair it is almost too blond to be true.

[Jackson Richardson]

It is rather a long time ago to recall my critical reaction at that age.

I think I just got a buzz out of reading something on my own, which I had chosen and nobody had recommended.

Same pleasure as I get from reading Proust.

[Seasider]

The first I remember was a Milly Molly Mandy book. I was five or six.

[qimissung]

I really don't remember. I remember reading the Dick and Jane stories in first grade when we were learning how to read; after that the first thing I remember reading was "Happy Birthday to You" by Dr. Seuss, which I found wondrous and amazing.

[Buckthorn]

I think it was a point horror book, maybe Hallowe'en Night. Or it could have been IT by Stephen King or The Pelican Brief. Or Teds Helicopter (when I was 4).

[jlcox]

The Berenstain Bears!http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/TheBerenstainBears.jpg/220px-TheBerenstainBears.jpg

[neilgee]

I can't remember the first book, the first one I am aware of being mentioned by title was The Water babies but I know I was reading something else when TWB was recommended to me by my mother who said she had absolutely loved it as a child.

I felt guilty because I just couldn't get into TWB at all, I just didn't get it, felt I'd let Mum down (as usual).

Boo hoo.

[steve12553]

I suspect my first was a Scholactic book club version of "The Shy Stegasaurus of Cricket Creek".I ahd to wait nearly 2 week for my $.35 paperback. Acquiring the $.35 was an effort, too, in those days.

[Irishcrusader95]

it was probably the first Harry Potter book, i was totally adverse to reading before then but that was what started a life long passion. i also remember reading the 'Give yourself Goosebumps' books, i just loved them for how you could pick options making it an interactive game like you were really there in the story.

[Jassy Melson]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

[xtianfriborg13]

Tuesdays With Morrie was the first book I ever read and after that, I'm addicted to reading.

[sk2]

The phantom tollbooth.
I never really understood what I read but I remember being mesmerized by that book.

[Eiseabhal]

Biggles Learns to Fly

[Goodman Brown]

yea I remember this, this is a book I read that didn't have anything to do with school I was working in a hotel In New Orleans french Quarter somebody out it out with their tray and I picked it up,,,it was( Rich man Poor Man) really good book they made it into a movie later!!got me back to reading on a regular bases,,,,,,,,,,

[OrphanPip]

First book on my own was Treasure Island in French translation, I was probably 7 or 8. My parents used to order those Scholastic children's books from school fundraisers, most of them were forgettable.They also provided me with an ample supply of National Geographic magazines, Biblical story books, and old Hardy Boys novels. When I was around 13-14 I started to read my brother's books from college, so Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha and Winesburg, Ohio were probably the first serious books I read.

[Clovis]

The thief of always by clive barker

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/ThiefOfAlways.jpg/175px-ThiefOfAlways.jpg

[Buh4Bee]

The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss

[EstherAlexandra]

Sleeping Beauty

[Bibliophile79]

Three Little Pigs

[grechzoo]

Not counting children stories. I was actually one of those silly kids who didn't read any book through his whole teens. (i literally passed my English literature exams by watching the film version of of mice and men :p)

But when I was 18 or so I decided to try it seriously. I wanted something Sci-fi and fantasy and saw Ender's Game being very highly rated. It blew me away and to this day remains one of my favourite books. (I'm 26 now, so that's around 8 years.)


Not looked back since.

[CauseAndEffect]

The Boxcar Children series...do those count? lol

I remember loving those.

I can't remember the first book I read, but the first book I remember really getting to me was The Giver